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Do you still enjoy food

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Pinkorchid

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,927
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
We often hear members saying how much they enjoy their low carb diet but does that go for everyone who does low carb higher fat. Am I the only one who has found the low carb diet so boring that is has taken the pleasure out of food for me when once I could eat just what I wanted and enjoy it. I was only an occasional sweet tooth person and not big on starchy carbs never like rice or pasta and not lot of bread but I did love jacket potatoes and would have one for lunch at least four or five times a week even when I was out to lunch also I loved mash and roasties and I had all kinds of fruit
I know many here love their meat and make a lot of casseroles and stews and just eat mostly leafy greens and are enjoying that but I am not a big meat eater I do not like red meat so eat mostly chicken and Quorn. Is it just me who finds it so hard going without the things I loved to eat
 
I'm the same, bored with my food, cos I don't have a sense of smell so I have a very weak sense of taste and I find sometimes through the day I'll have a plate of stuff in front of me so I fork mouthfulls in, chew then swallow and await the oncoming unpleasant feelings I usually get, for me, half the time it's different textures rather than tastes but hey ho, I could be starving.
 
No you are not the only one. After 11 years of LCHF (7 of them as a T2) I am bored with it too. I do eat meat but don't like it enough to eat a lot of it. I have found that my old LCHF diet of 50-80g carbs daily is still OK for my BGs but I desperately need to lose more weight so I have done keto for a few months (having a much needed rest from it for a couple of weeks now). I hate the keto diet but love how it makes me feel, but for me it isn't sustainable forever. I am hoping that the rest from it will surprise my body and encourage it to lose more weight when I get back to it. When I do keto I do OMAD too because at least that way I only have to cope with one horrid meal a day lol. I recently visited a carvery with my son. I had the same meal I usually do but this time with 2 small roast potatoes added to it. Normally my spike is 7.8. With the 2 potatoes it was 12!

I have come to realise that one day I will need insulin. All I can do is to try to lose weight before then so that I am not so insulin resistant as I am now. Pretty depressed about it all tbh.
 
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Pinkorchid said:
Am I the only one who has found the low carb diet so boring that is has taken the pleasure out of food
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You're not the only one. I'm trying to forget what enjoying a meal was like, and regard food as a necessity. An annoying one, though. It's worked for 8 months now, but I'm glad I'm not a very sociable person and won't be doing any tempting christmassy stuff. That did sound a bit like Dante's hell, I know, but for now I'm fine with it.
 
I wonder if those of use who dont enjoy it are also those who haven lost weight, or very little weight with it, so dont have the rewards usually associated with the diet?

Also, I dont like red meat except liver, and chicken is boring.

I have around 80g of carbs a day, so i can have a jacket potato, with tuna, mayo etc (not sweetcorn as well). I try to use my carbs for one meal I like.

I also try to get the best chicken I can, so its tasty. But yes, i am bored, bored, bored. Fed up with what i can eat as may low carb meals are out for me (no nuts, seeds, spices)

I just eat now to stay alive, really.
 
So do I find it hard
 
What is the keto diet can you explain please
 
I don't like very low carb either I'm not a great meat eater and I can't stand eggs or fatty food. It was too restrictive and didn't help me much. I didn't have weight to lose either. I'm not surprised that many people can't stick to it tbh it made me feel terrible and I couldn't hack it any more after a few weeks. That said I do always have an eye to how carby my food is and try to keep under 100g a day, and clearly there are some people who do enjoy keto and find it beneficial. I think we all have to manage our diabetes our way, what's right for one isn't right for another.
 
I get bored with monotonous food choices.
That means I would get just as bored with jacket potatoes 5x a week as I would with steak 5x a week. Carb intake has nothing to do with it, and it is all about falling into a rut and not bothering to make an effort.

Am currently eating carnivore, which means that the last 11 months have been the most restrictive eating I’ve ever tried.
Boredom is ALWAYS my creation. It is optional not obligatory or inevitable.

Bored with red meat? Then eat white, or fish, or cheese. Or tofu or seitan, or quorn, or... whatever floats your boat.
Bored with plain flavours? That is what herbs, spices and seasonings are for.
Experiment.
Play.
Get creative.
There are thousands of different cuisines out there.
Make a bit more of an effort for a change.

It is just as easy to fall into a baked potato rut as to fall into a chicken salad rut.

If I can maintain interest when just eating carni, then the rest of you can maintain interest with the vast range of low carb fruit, veg, protein, fibre and fat choices available.

If you want to.
 
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I agree. Although the social side sucks. I spent the last week in a hotel (work commitment not hols) and the menu from my point of view was dire.

Everything was with chips or naan bread, breaded salmon fish cakes, Mexican chilli with tacos.

I ended up eating badly cooked steak with salad all week. Geees I'm glad I wasn't paying for it and the look of confusion when I asked for no chips.

At home I go nuts with spices and meats, different veg etc. No nead to be dull.

The bit I do find dull is drinks. Tea, coffee, water. After that there is always a penalty. Alcohol is one of my no no's and I'm no fan of artificial sweeteners as now they seem to get things moving awful fast if you get my drift.
 
We really enjoy our low carb food, especially eating seasonal foods. At the moment I have several pheasants and some partridge in the freezer. Sprouts (roasted in oil, NOT boiled) are the vegetable of the moment. We are still getting duck eggs, which are deliciously rich and we'll look forward to the few weeks when goose eggs come into the shops in the spring. The stock I make from the pheasants is turned into lovely soup, along with celeriac and mushrooms.
Eat real food, preferably when it's in season and there's no need to be bored.
Sally
 
Brunneria said:
If I can maintain interest when just eating carni, then the rest of you can maintain interest with the vast range of low carb fruit, veg, protein, fibre and fat choices available.
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I thought one of your pet hates on hates on this forum was people saying 'If I can do it anyone can' ? And Yes I do want to, and have managed for all these years, it's just now I am finding things difficult. I am not a failure just because I don't currently enjoy food.

I am grateful to @Pinkorchid for starting this thread.
 
zand said:
I thought one of your pet hates on hates on this forum was people saying 'If I can do it anyone can' ?
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Yes. It is. But I also find it equally frustrating when people put up barriers for themselves, especially when those barriers are optional.

There is a whole gamut of choices we get to make in life - and sometimes we don’t get choices at all.

When we DO have choices (such as adding spice or seasoning to bland boring food) then that is small fry compared with someone announcing they transformed their life with a miracle subscription to a snake oil website - which is where most of the ‘if I can...’ claims come from.

I guess you and I see things differently. Not for the first time, and probably not for the last. That’s fine.
I will be having curry tonight, and enjoying every mouthful.
 
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I simultaneously enjoy my low carb food (though I am only five months in) while horribly missing the food I used to eat (pizza, candy, milk).

As @zand said I love how the diet makes me feel. No tummy bloating, lots of energy.

Oddly, about three years ago (long before my diabetes diagnosis) my taste buds and tummy seemed to undergo a massive change. I could no longer tolerate the sweets I used to love. I became much more sensitive to salty food, and I started genuinely craving vegetables, so low carb was kinda right up my alley.
 
I think what i reacted to was your assumption that those of us who are bored don't experiment with different things. True a couple of years ago my diet was very repetitive but my mental health was my priority back then. Since then though I have been doing the things you suggest adding spices etc. And yes i make the occasional curry too.
 
I have most certainly not lost interest in food, I love it! I can't wait to have my breakfast, I look forward to lunch and my evening meal is usually the highlight of my day. Obviously OMAD and fasting don't appeal to me! Apart from being moderately low carb, about 70g a day, I also eat as wide variety of food as I can, whatever I need in nutrients, it's bound to be in there somewhere. My main aim with my diet is sustainability, which is why I haven't pursued a very low HbA1c, better for it to be good enough, enjoy my food and not burn out.
 
for those of us who had food restrictions like, in my case, red meat is not good for me, no nuts, no seeds, no spices, then it is boring and repetitive.

add mental health issues into the mix, economic restrictions and CFS/ME and its hard. Very hard. I am surprised you think its the persons fault for not trying hard enough.

Most of us are just doing the best we can.
 
Bored with food no way.. a changed relationship with it however yes certainly.
Food is no longer a "treat" or a "reward" it is fuel plain and simple.
Now some of you will say "oh that means you can't enjoy it" but by heavens you'd be wrong.
We eat things like slow roast duck legs crisped up for the yummy fatty skin after 6 hours in the oven...
Sausage stuffed boned turkey legs cooked sous vide then roasted for 20 minutes.
Pork belly cooked for 36 hours then pan fried.. boring? yeah right..
And like @Brunneria I eat 95% carnivore so not a veg in sight with that lot.. but who needs veg with 12 hour slow roast lamb shoulder eh?
 
that list, in order to have enough quantity to satisfy without any veg etc is expensive. So is heating an oven for 6-36 hours, as mentioned on your list.

Low carb is fine if you like the foods on it. Its fine if you can digest the foods on it. Its fine if you can afford the foods on it. If you cant do one or all of those points, its miserable and boring.

I have yet to see a low carb diet which is affordable for those on benefits or a very limited income.
 
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